Devotional commitment of Sri Patham Thangis and Divya Prabhandham Ghosti was seen till well past midnight with two successive processions on the evening
A death in one of the sacred streets of Thiruvallikeni just
ahead of the Simha Vahana procession on the 2nd evening of the
Narasimha Swamy Brahmotsavam took the service personnel and the temple staff off guard. Historically, it has been the tradition in the agraharams of
Divya Desam that any untoward incidents will be cleared off within the first Naazhigai – 2 ½ hours.
Agama expert and one of the leading Bhattars in Divya Desams
in Tamil Nadu Vasan Bhattar of Therazhundur says that there has been historical
documentation in the Aamaruviappan Divya
Desam (http://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/10/therazhundur-divya-desam.html) that has all its residents as signatories wherein the residents have
undertaken to clear any obstructions to the Lord’s procession within a couple
of hours so as to allow the Lord to pass.
He says that even the period of an hour and a half is only for
the ‘sacred’ activities to be performed after death and scriptures record it
that anything after this sacred period, the ‘dead’ body becomes equivalent to
that of a dog that lies dead and unattended on the street. Hence, it is the duty of the
resident to complete all the sacred formalities within the first couple of hours
of death and clear obstructions that will then pave the way for the Lord to go
around the streets on the pre slated procession including during the
Brahmotsavam.
In fact for specific lagnam based events such as
dwajarohanam and chariot procession, even such untoward events should not stop
the pre fixed schedule and the Lord’s events should take place as planned says Vasan Bhattar.
This was largely followed till a few decades ago in almost
all Divya Desams. However, times have changed and the new generation on the
back of an anti brahminical wave from the 1960s and 70s (http://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/09/thenthiruperai-divya-desam.html) have made their way to
the West seeking greener pastures in the corporate world. Given this completely
changed scenario, even the once most traditional of residents are playing it
tough now and making the Lord wait beyond the once acceptable time for clearing
such obstructions reasoning that the descendants have to make their way for the
event from other destinations.
In the past, the families stayed together in the agraharam,
the service personnel to conduct the activities were also residing in the same
area and hence it was possible to finish within the stipulated time. And hence
rarely did a procession get delayed for such reasons.
However, things have changed dramatically. For example, at
the Thiruvallikeni Divya Desam, the streets on which the Lord makes his
procession is now full of shops, eat outs and towering apartments in many cases
taller than the Vimanam of the temple. There are big cars parked on the Mada
and Car streets that many times affect the easy movement of the Lord. And in many cases these belong to the
traditionalists living in these streets ( Last night just after 11pm, one of the former staffers at the temple Madapalli, in a moment of anger, removed the air from couple of tyres of a car parked opposite the Rama Sannidhi in the presence of the Police personnel).
Following the death, there were differing views amongst the
service personnel and devotees. There were those who wanted to protest as a group
demanding the quick removal of the body where as the devotees were a little
apprehensive on the rights of the temple considering the sensitivities involved
with this.
While much has changed in the decades gone by in terms of
the lifestyle of the traditionalists at the temples in Tamil Nadu, it still
remains within the powers of the temple to force a clearance of obstructions on
the streets where the Lord makes his way on a procession for that is the
unwritten (in some cases even a written undertaking as seen in Therazhundur
Divya Desam) code of conduct that the residents agreed to abide by once upon a time
in the sacred streets of Divya Desam. Today they are talking a different
language forgetting the historical reasons of having taken up residence in
these streets and standing firm on such occasions.
As it turned out, the Simha Vahanam procession had to be
cancelled on the 2nd evening of the Brahmotsavam as was the popular
Garuda Sevai on the 3rd morning as the resident did not agree to
clear till the next morning. The devotees also discussed amongst themselves
that this was a way for the greatest of the Azhvaars, NamAzhvaar to show his
power, for the 3rd day of the Brahmotsavam also co-incided with the
annual avathara nakshatram of the Azhvaar.
And thus the focus on most of the 3rd day of the
Brahmotsavam remained with NamAzhvaar with the devotee crowd gathering in large
numbers to listen to the Prabhandham recital of the verses of the Azhvaar –
Tiruviruttam, Tiruvasaryam and Periya Thiruvanthathi in addition to the 10th
Canto of Tiruvoimozhi.
A Rare Occurence - Azhvaar has Garuda Sevai darshan
Also, the delayed clearance on the previous evening led to
another unique feature. For the first time, NamAzhvaar had a Garuda Sevai
darshan on the occasion his Avathara Utsavam. As the Garuda Sevai procession at
the Brahmotsavam features in the morning and the NamAzhvaar Avathara Utsavam
procession takes place in the evening, it is rare for NamAzhvaar to have Garuda
Sevai darshan of the Lord of Thiruvallikeni.
Word was sent around to the devotees from across the city
who usually gather in front of the Narasimha Swamy Raja Gopuram from 430 am on
the occasion of the third day of the Brahmotsavam about the postponement of the
Garuda Sevai to evening. And thus a huge crowd gathered around 4pm with each of
the devotees wanting to take a vantage position for a first glimpse of the Lord
on the Garuda Vahanam.
Shortly after, Namazhvaar made his way around Narasimha
Swamy and positioned himself in front of the Lord to listen to the Moonram
Thiruvanthathi recital of the Divya Prabhandham Scholars of Thiruvallikeni
The other debate of the day was whether ‘Eysel’, a prominent
event of Garuda Sevai would take place. While the offerings to the Lord on the street procession was done away with, much to the delight of the devotees Eysel was presented as per the original schedule. It was around 7pm that the
Lord returned to his abode through the Western Entrance of the Parthasarathy
Koil.
For the over 100+ Sri Patham Thangis, there was very little
time to rest for they had to come back within the next couple of hours to carry
the Lord on the Hamsa Vahanam procession that was slated for the 3rd
evening of the Brahmotsavam. It was commendable on the part of the traditional
Sri Patham (one that has come to be almost non-existent in most of the Divya
Desams in Tamil Nadu) to carry the Lord for over two hours again from 10pm
having just undertaken a 2 ½ hour procession from 4.30 pm but they carried out the task with utmost devotion ( they were also back this morning at 6am for the Surya Prabhai procession after just a few hours of sleep on Saturday night).
And when the Lord on the Hamsa Vahanam came to rest at the
Vahana Mandapam, it was well past midnight.
The Divya Prabhandham and Vedic scholars
too had had a very long day having begun the day just around 10am with the
postponed procession relating to the 2nd evening that was followed
by Thirumanjanam for Lord Narasimha and Namazhvaar. The extended recital of
Namazhvaar’s verses on the occasion of his Avathara Utsavam took almost three
hours on this last day of Vaikasi. And then they were back at it in the evening
for the two long Vahana processions. It was also a long and tiring day for other service personnel such as the archakas, paricharakas, the madapalli personnel and the nadaswaram players to move from the procession in the morning to the hectic activities that followed during the course of the day.
It was also touching to see the leader of the Divya Prabhandham Ghosti, MA Venkatakrishnan, unmindful of the injury to his leg, standing for over three hours in the afternoon presenting the verses of NamAzhvaar on the occasion of his Avathara Thiru Nakshatram, such is the commitment of the Ghosti at Thiruvallikeni ( http://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/05/ma-venkatakrishnan-thiruvallikeni-divya_16.html).
PHOTO COURTESY: SHRI THIRUMALAI VINJIMOOR VENKATESH
PHOTO COURTESY: SHRI THIRUMALAI VINJIMOOR VENKATESH
4 comments:
Very good report , enjoyed thoroughly reading it
Excellent article
Nice. There are also other kainkaryapakas who performed.
Nice and informative article
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